Gray Malin: Make Every Day a Getaway (Season 2, Episode 7)

The state that we're in right now has really put into perspective a lot for me personally, I think, about my mission as a photographer and entrepreneur. When I'm making this work, it really is for the long haul. It's meant to last forever and well beyond my lifetime.

Welcome to Take the Long View with Matt Hall. This is a podcast to reframe the way you think about your money, emotion, and time. The goal? Helping you put the odds of long-term success on your side. I'm so excited to have our guest, Gray Malin, join us today because he is a photographer extraordinaire. He's someone whose work transports you to another place. After moving to Los Angeles for an internship at Paramount, Malan started his business selling photographs from a small booth at a West Hollywood Sunday swap meet near his current home. In 2009, he attracted public attention with his Prada Marfa series, which was a sequence created with the assistance of the local township in Marfa, Texas. Since the success of the Prada Marfa series, Malan has shot over 30 fine art photography series around the world in locations as remote as Antarctica, Namibia, and Bhutan, while also receiving commercial recognition for inventive aerial beach, ski, and park scenes of the world's most iconic destinations. With the philosophy to make every day a getaway, Malin's photography has expanded into a line of luxury products for home and travel and have led to collaborations with global brands such as Veuve Clicquot, Disney, Sperry Topsider, and Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts. Gray is also the author of the New York Times bestselling Beaches and Escape, both of which showcase his aerial and conceptual photography, as well as the recent release of his second children's book, A World of Opposites, and third coffee table book, Italy. He lives in West Hollywood with his husband Jeff and twins Dove and Max. Gray was born in Dallas, Texas, and attended Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He majored in marketing and received a minor in photography. We're so glad he's here because I think we all need a dose of what Gray is all about. Welcome to Take the Long View, Gray.

Thank you for having me.

Well, you know what's funny is right now in these times, I feel like everything you've been doing and everything your work is about is like the perfect antidote to what's happening right now in some ways. You know, everything I feel like in your books and your artwork says, sort of like it's the escape or the getaway or make every day a getaway. Are you feeling that now too? Do you feel that either in your business or just in the spirit of things that your work is never more needed than it is today?

I really do. I think you hit the nail on the head. The state that we're in right now has really put into perspective a lot for me personally, I think, about my mission as a photographer and entrepreneur. When I'm making this work, it really is for the long haul. It's meant to last forever and well beyond my lifetime. But it's really nice to suddenly have this newfound appreciation for your work at, I guess, a younger age and time in your career. And it's been really fulfilling for me personally just to be able to offer this to the world at this time. And, you know, I've spent basically the last decade on an airplane trying to document so many beautiful places around the world. So it's just wonderful to have this archive that I can use and help get a— hopefully inspire and help people through this time.

Yeah. So let's go back in time a little bit. Let's go back to before you decided that you would become now more than just a fine art photographer, your work can— I could buy an ottoman that has a part of your work on it. So, but let's go back in time. You know, I think at one point you had sort of a corporate job. How did you go from there to telling yourself you could do this or that people would want this work or that this was your sort of calling?

Well, I think for me, I landed a dream job out of school working for the president of Paramount Pictures' Oscar movie department. And I was surrounded by people who were making these incredible award-winning films and talent and everything about it was incredible. And it inspired me to really think about what I was doing there and what I was passionate about. And it kind of gave me the courage to take a huge step back and leave that job and pursue what I loved, which had always really been photography. And photography just was, I guess, not really a viable job or career for my family. And for just in general, it's not what you are brought up told to do. And this job really helped me get the courage to leave. And then from there, I really started interning for other photographers. And I was trying to learn what kind of photographer I wanted to become. And I also started taking classes and I found a mentor and, you know, things obviously don't happen overnight, but this time period was during the recession in 2008, 2009. So all the sort of opportunities that I could find, I had to take and In the very beginning, I was terrified if I could even make a living off of being a photographer. But in retrospect, that dark time during that recession really allowed me to find myself selling my work not in a gallery, but in a flea market. Since galleries were closing and weren't able to stay in business, you know, the flea market really gave me a shot at presenting my work technically to the public and allowed me to really find myself as an artist and listen and learn from people in the community that I guess you would also achieve from a gallery or gallerist. But I just had to take an untraditional route. So that was sort of the very beginning from leaving my career to finding a very small platform to continue to move forward.

And the breakthrough moment for you is what? Is it the Marfa series? What was the moment where you're like, yes, this is going to be it? I'm doing exactly what I imagined.

The breakthrough moment at the flea market was definitely— it was listening to what people's reactions were to my work. And I had one photograph that I had shot in Marfa. It was just a very simple shot, black and white, of the Prada Marfa store on the side of the highway. And everyone thought it was Photoshopped. And I kept trying to explain to everyone that it was real and about Marfa and that it was in West Texas and that you couldn't go in this art installation. It wasn't a store. It was, it was just an art installation. And it got me thinking about making work that almost gave people a whole world of conversation. Like this photograph drummed up so much chitter chatter and people really enjoyed looking at it, talking about it, talking to me about it. And then the other breakthrough moment was one Sunday, a young woman came in my booth and asked if I had ever thought of selling my work online. And in 2009, it was very taboo, almost. it's crazy to say it, but it felt wild to say I saw my, my work on the internet, almost like it was looked down upon or something like that. And so when she asked me that question, it really got me thinking and ultimately led to me exploring that route, which would eventually open up my entire kind of career. So for anyone out there who's listening, who's looking to start or take a turn in their career, it's really important that you learn a lot from the very, very beginning. And whether in a flea market or somewhere else, you have to really take that step backwards and be very humble. And by listening and being present, you can learn so much that will actually end up helping you in the long run.

So let's talk about a few specific examples, cuz I don't know if the listeners aren't familiar with your work. They don't really have a— I don't think a sense for how much work goes into your work. Because I've seen on Instagram and some of the stories you've put together, like, the effort and the thinking and the creativity that goes into getting a shot. And there are a couple specific ones I want to talk about. One is, can you tell us the story of when you shot these sheep that look like they're spray-painted?

Basically, as an artist, I have many ideas. They usually start in a journal and they end up into a Pinterest board and eventually, hopefully come to fruition. But sometimes they take years and the sheep took years. I had come across a BBC article about a Scottish sheep farmer, probably in like 2008. Or 2009, who he had dyed his sheep. I think it was orange to deter some thieves that had been taking his sheep. And I visually remember seeing these sheep out in these green fields in Scotland and I thought, wow, like, that is surreal. And I love making work that people can't possibly believe is real. And this idea stuck with me for years and years. And I think it was 2013, I found through some family of mine that lives in Melbourne, Australia, a third-generation sheep farmer who was interested in working with me on this project. And he told me that he actually had used dye on his sheep before to sort of figure out which sheep went into different paddocks. Not fully dyeing them, but just there is like a nontoxic vegetable dye you can mark on the back of the sheep's necks. And he said that we could mist the sheep in the, like, the showers where they apply, I guess, tick and flea solution to the sheep. They could mist them with blue, with red, with orange, with yellow, with pink, and so on. And I just thought, oh my gosh, I'm going to go to Australia and make this happen. So I flew there. I drove like 7 hours to this farm with 2 colleagues and we stayed on the farm for like 4 days and we shot these incredible dyed sheep. And the problem with this series was that we didn't think about the rain and if it rained, which it was like literally on the forecast every day, all the dye would come off the sheep. So we had to keep them in the barn. And ultimately, we got one great day and we let them out of the barn. They ran across the field. And since it was rainy weather, we just got lucky where this rainbow shot across the sky as all the rainbow sheep were in the field below it. And it just— it was an incredible moment because it was a vision in my mind for so long. And then all of a sudden, the rainbow just took it up 10 notches. And I think, yes, I mean, I'll go anywhere in the world to make a vision come to life. You just need a great sort of, you need a, I needed a great farmer. I needed some great team members and people with an open mind.

That's a good long view story. When a shoot takes 3 years from the idea to it coming to life, that's pretty cool. Okay, let me ask you this. When all this quarantine stay-at-home business is over, where's one of the first places you will go? Assuming everything is safe and all that stuff, where would you go? Where do you miss the most?

Well, personally, my family has a summer home on Lake Michigan, and we gather there every summer together, especially around August. So I'm hoping to make it there this summer with our kids. And quarantine's been tough for everyone, but I have 17-month-old twins and grandparents that are dying to see them and siblings. So I'm really hopeful for that. Um, and then professionally, I was about to produce a big project on the Big Island of Hawaii, which got pushed into the fall. So I'm hoping to make that happen if it's safe to travel again later this year.

I just bought this, um, piece you have on your website called Girl in Pink. What's the story behind that?

Well, Girl in Pink is a wonderful, very— I would say being in the right place at the right time shot. I was in Bora Bora shooting a project that had to do with interior design portrayed in the exterior world. And we floated iconic mid-century modern furniture on a a mirrored raft floating in front of Mount Otemanu. And it's a whole series called The Art of Living, which you can see on my website. It's pretty nutty. But while I was there, I chartered a helicopter and I could really only afford like 25 minutes of airtime because it was so costly. And I went up and I could not find really much at all. Bora Bora is very much a honeymooner place. You don't have, you know, a beach with tons of people. But there was a boat that had recently docked and all of the people on the boat were out swimming. And I happened to find this wonderful swimmer and it turned out to be a woman in a pink bathing suit. And I snapped this shot and she's just sort of reaching out very gracefully and The water in Bora Bora really looks just like almost like a large swimming pool. So it's such a dreamy image and I think it really feels like an escape. And that's why we chose it for the COVID of my second coffee table book, Escape. I think it has all those feelings and emotions in it. Hmm.

Okay, let's talk about you as a business person, not necessarily a photographer. You are everywhere now, man. You have all these collaborations and how did you decide, or how did you build a team, or how have you built a business that has extended your work way beyond like what you can hang on your wall? But you have phone cases and fabrics and strollers, and I mean, you've got all kinds of collaborations. How have you built this?

It took time. It has been incredible to become more than just a photographer, but a brand. And I grew up with a mother who's an incredible interior decorator. She doesn't do it professionally, but she certainly did it in the house that I grew up in. And I learned from a very young age about basically how art can make a room feel and I really started to want to make work that was meant to not just hang in the home and look fabulous and take you somewhere else or incite conversation, but also to quote unquote, make every day feel like a getaway. And once I started to step into that world and that brand motto, I found myself intrigued very quickly. And 2012, a British men's bathing suit company reached out to me named Orlebar Brown, and they asked if we could make swim shorts together for men. And their bathing suits, I think, were around $400. And so it was a very costly item, but it opened my eyes to the image moving off the wall and into the 3D world on someone's body. And the collaboration launched soon after that. I found myself in a helicopter above the beaches in Chicago, and my Sperry Topsider shoes were sort of dangling from the side of the helicopter while I was shooting. It's— I'm tethered in, so don't worry. I just happened to take a photo of my feet right on top of the beach with all the umbrellas and the people. And it inspired me to reach out to Sperry Topsider, and we ended up collaborating collaborating. And that became my first collaboration. And I loved Sperry so much, I thought, what other brands do I love? You know, what's authentic for me and, you know, my world in this Make Everyday a Getaway. And I ended up receiving a Swell water bottle for Christmas. I believe my sister, my dad, myself, we all got one in like our stockings. And they were brand new to the market. And I thought, these water bottles are amazing. And we reached out to them, we ended up doing a collaboration with them. They got us into Neiman Marcus, into Bloomingdale's, into Saks, into Nordstrom, and not to mention countless mom-and-pop shops. And suddenly I realized that through the power of collaborations, you could really grow your name and your presence in many, many new markets. And at the same time I was working on those, I also was able to buy my first home in Los Angeles. And I oddly had this idea that I could maybe partner with a company and we could furnish one of the rooms in the house with their furniture, my artwork, and then we could maybe do a marketing push to shop the room. And though you've probably seen that now, at the time it was very new. And so by tapping into William Sonoma's market, Srinam Lillie's market, and One Kings Lane's market, and so on. I was able to basically for free without any cost to me, get exposure to a large, large audience I would not have been able to reach on my own. So the power of collaborations have been huge for me in thinking strategically about not just products, but also about like lifestyle. And, you know, most recently, you probably saw the stroller collaboration with Bugaboo. And, you know, I have kids and Bugaboo collaborated with Andy Warhol and Missoni, and I reached out to them. And I thought, you know, I would absolutely love to work with them. And strollers for them in general are pretty, you know, they're black, they're navy blue, they're sometimes maroon, they're not super inventive, very functional, but not inventive in terms of the way they look. So it's been such a dream to get to take the photograph and make it something that people can live their life in outside of just, you know, being on their wall. Mm-hmm.

So you have to have, I guess, figured out how to build a team or build an organization too. So go beyond just being a photographer and become an entrepreneur and a business person. How have you gone about figuring all those puzzle pieces out?

Yes, building a team is, you know, as anyone will tell you, it's not easy. But I started working and have continued to work successfully with friends. And I know a lot of people probably would advise you not to do that. But in the very beginning, I had a friend who was unhappy in her job. And she joined me and helped, and it taught me that I could trust and take things off my plate and eventually hire someone else. And I think that the biggest takeaway I learned after maybe my third employee was that you just have to be willing to trust others and Once you can take that pressure off yourself, you can actually really inspire and motivate a team to create and conquer visions. And together, I, you know, I could never be where I am today without this team, but it's taken a lot of coaching, a lot of time to empower and to I'd say really make sure everyone feels like they're growing and learning. And I also have brought in higher-up people who come with years of experience from other companies. So it's a little bit of a mixture of people who are younger with people who are more experienced. And at my company, I'm really big on team building and we go on company trips together every year. We do a lot, a lot of team building, but it's really just team. It's almost like a family. So it's been a crucial part of this whole, of this whole process. It's just really hard in the beginning, but once you get over that initial hump, it really, it really can change and make your company so much stronger.

Let me share with you a quote I found that I want to see your reaction to. So in my home, Uh, we, we have a decorator that we admire, and she— we have some Slim Aarons images and some Massimo Vitali images, and we have some Gray Malin work too. And, and I wanted to— I found this quote from Slim Aarons that I liked, and I, I thought it's a quote that could, based on your work, could also come from you. He said, I'm going to walk on the sunny side of the street. I'm going to have fun photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places. And maybe take some attractive photographs as well.

Yes.

What do you think of that?

I've heard that quote. It's a beautiful quote. I absolutely love his work. But it's interesting. I met with his daughter a couple of years ago and I mean, he has passed, but it was so interesting just to learn more about his career ultimately as like a war photographer and then moving into documenting sort of the, like you said, pretty people doing pretty things in pretty places. And it's fascinating to me because I am so— in my mind, I have done so many projects. I think I've shot 30 series to date. And in the past couple of years, I was inspired by my grandparents. They are no longer with us, but they have left in our summer home about 15 albums of their travels. They traveled relentlessly around the world and there's such a glamorous sort of— it's been very inspirational to me. And I sit and flip through these albums and I want to recreate their lives. And a lot of people have drawn comparisons to slim errands for my work. And it's such a compliment. Because I think what he created is so amazing. And I don't own any of his work, but I hope to one day. And I think I recently was shooting a project in Palm Springs. And we decided to create an image totally in, in like honor of him, of these two women by a pool. And I just find that time period that he got to document so amazing. And I'm so inspired by it. And not just in my vintage projects from like the Beverly Hills Hotel and Palm Beach and Bermuda and the Coral Casino, but, you know, also in like my Bon Voyage series, which is shot in an airplane. And it really is like a nod to that glamorous time of travel. And I think, I don't know, it's something ingrained in me. And I also do love Massimo Vitali's work. I could not believe when I started shooting my projects in Italy how— because it's so difficult to shoot images on a crowded beach without anyone noticing you're there. And I found it so amazing how he was able to build and get up high in the air above everyone, take the images. And if you look at his work, it's incredible. No one's looking at the camera. It's like very— it's very impressive. My work in Italy is just— I'm an umbrella, I'd say, like, freak. I love beach umbrellas and I love the timelessness of them. So I really set out to Italy to document basically that umbrellas, in my opinion, keep the beach feeling very timeless. If you don't have an iPhone or a laptop in any of your shots, you really don't know what time period it is. Those beach umbrellas in Italy, you know, been around for decades and decades. And I just am so drawn to, to them and the way they look and make me feel. Actually, just, I can't get enough. I like, I'm already plotting my next, my next trip back over there to keep shooting. So both of those photographers are amazing people and I'm honored to even be considered in, you know, their league. And, you know, it's wonderful to hear that you have their work and mine in your home.

Yeah, because I think, I think in some ways you do the very thing that was in that quote. You help people get to the sunny side of the street. There is something so idyllic and sweet about the images you take, whether they're in nature or with animals or beaches or in the snow or Or as I think about some of what you've done in the Hotel series, I mean, there's just so many images that do take you somewhere else if you allow yourself to go there. And I love that you're doing it in other places, that you're doing it on a phone case and on a stroller and all over. I think that that's so brave and courageous in some ways to keep going beyond just successful images, because that's something to my knowledge, I don't know that Slomarens or Massimo Vitali had any collaborations that allowed people to access the work in the ways you have. So let's talk about what's next. What do you do next? You've already done so much. Once you're free to roam about the country again, or the world, what do you kick off with?

Well, I actually just want to back up a minute. I think with, with artists like Slomarens and Massimo Vitali and many other artists, So much has changed in the last couple of years when it comes to photography, where I said 10 years ago it was taboo to sell your work online. It's really true. And when I started out, when I decided— I mean, I signed with a gallery and within 6 weeks the gallery shuttered due to the recession. I think I had to— I was forced to find my own path, my own journey, and working on products and collaborations and really, I guess, being a trailblazer. I feel like I'm a trailblazer in the sense that I'm, I'm hoping to prove to other people out there there's so much you can do with photography that's exciting. And with Instagram and its popularity over the last, I think, 8 years, it's, it's made photography go from what was sort of the dark horse of the art world to the front runner and one of the most exciting art forms of this entire, not just this generation, but the world right now. I think that there's so much ahead of photography, and I feel just very lucky to be where I am during this time of the evolution of the internet and the cell phone and the social media and all these things. So collaborations, just, you know, they're— I feel like they're just scratching the surface and things like iPhone cases, and we have wallpaper, um, we have a kids' line of furniture. These are all just examples of how wonderful, like you said, it can be to walk on the sunny side of the street. So I hope to see more of that from other people in the future, not just myself. Yeah, in terms of where I'm going next with my career, I am working on a really exciting book. It's— my publisher offered me a monograph called Grey Malin, and it's the first decade of my career, and it's 350 pages, and it's a portrait-sized book, and it's just a really incredible dream to be working on. And due to the COVID-19, we pushed it from the fall to the spring of 2021. So that'll be coming out next year. And until then, I'm going to be shooting more, I hope, in the fall. And in the near future, I've been working on a new video series that I've always wanted to do, but I haven't had the time. And this has allowed me all the time, as you can imagine. And it's called More Than a Photograph: The Stories of Gray Malin. And they're 10-minute episodes that go from my very, very beginnings in the flea market to where I am today and walk you through the exciting photoshoots around the world, how I ended up on places like the Today Show. And it's airing currently. I think episode 7 comes out this Sunday, but it's on our YouTube which is YouTube/GreyMaelin, and it's also on our Instagram television, IGTV. So that's been thrilling to get to sit down and turn the lens on myself during this time and share the stories that I have not been able to tell before.

Yeah, those are great. Those are great. Where else should people follow you?

The number one place that I recommend anyone coming to learn more about me is on my website, which is greymaelin.com. And after that, the most popular place people like to learn about me is on Instagram, which is @graymalin. And other than that, we of course have a wonderful Pinterest, which I love Pinterest, which is I think Pinterest/graymalin. We're very active there. And then I would say Facebook and YouTube. YouTube, you can see 60-second videos of me shooting my series around the world in different places. Which are fun, and then also the show I was just talking about, More Than a Photograph, as well.

Well, thanks, Gray. I love talking with you. I love what you do. I hope you keep doing it. It's such a wonderful treat for everyone else to get an escape or a getaway without, at this time, being able to really leave. And I know, especially for anyone I know who has kids under the age of 5, multiple kids under the age of 5 at home, this is a tricky time. Because I have a 12-year-old daughter, and she really is pretty independent, but it's tough if you have kids under 5. So I bet, um, you're like the rest of us and can't wait to have a real getaway yourself.

Absolutely. Soon.

Well, thanks for your time, and, uh, really appreciate you doing this, Gray.

Thank you so much.

What are your feelings about passing on your wealth? Please note the information shared in this podcast is not intended as advice. The intent is to share meaningful experiences. I am likely not your advisor, nor wealth manager, nor financial planner, and my opinions are my own and not necessarily shared by Hill Investment Group. Investing involves risk. Consult a professional before implementing an investment strategy. Thank you.